Free Basics is no longer available in India: Facebook

After TRAI’s ruling in favour of net neutrality couple of days back and subsequent furore over Marc Andreessen, Silicon Valley investor and one of the board members of the Facebook, tweet where he criticized India’s opposition to Free Basics, Facebook has rolled back the offering from India.

After TRAI’s ruling in favour of net neutrality couple of days back and subsequent furore over Marc Andreessen, Silicon Valley investor and one of the board members of the Facebook, tweet where he criticized India’s opposition to Free Basics, Facebook has rolled back the offering from India.

The tweet by Andreessen led to series of tweets by Indian netizens protesting against him comparing the opposition to Free Basics in India to anti-colonialism which did not go well with Indians. To damage control, Facebook CEO had to put a post on his Facebook page disassociating from Marc Andreessen views. He called the comments as “deeply upsetting and doesn’t represent the way Facebook or I think”.

This has been a setback for Facebook in India which has vast user base in the country and was looking to increase it further by offering free access to services to the joining user.